It’s madness to rely on making and locating vital anti-Pandemic products abroad. So says the boss of America’s top producer of health products.

That’s the view of the Chairman and CEO of the largest health care and health products company in the USA, Johnson and Johnson.

Alex Gorsky spoke out about what he called “a maniacal focus on efficiency and effectiveness”.  Instead, he urged countries to concentrate on “self-reliance and sustainability”.

He said it was important to preposition crucial products within every country rather than producing these in far-off locations like China and having to rush the products in when an emergency arose.

“Global health security is vital,” Gorsky said.

As the best means for nations to combat health threats including pandemics, Gorsky said the priority was to educate people to keep healthy, eat the right things and take appropriate rest.  But he said it was important also to teach them not to go overboard in this quest, as “the important thing is balance”.

He himself keeps fit but he confessed he does indulge in an occasional burger.

In a revealing interview on Bloomberg Television, Gorsky predicted the pandemic would become “endemic” and would remain a health threat for several years.  He was however particularly impressed by the speed and skill with which vaccines were being developed.

Admitting that drug companies, governments and most health experts had been slow to realise the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said: “Almost all of us have under-emphasised its dramatic impact.”

Gorsky concluded: “I think it’s important that we have redundancy and to ensure we have more local capacity to ensure that in future pandemics we are all better prepared.”